Oh, shut your mouth!!

 I started running some soft trail runs. They are mostly run on golf courses and they are timed. Great stuff. Although not the toughest of races, they are good training, and training I need. Meandering through the golf estates (apologies Mr. Greensman) through the dark is quite interesting. Who knew that the roughs were indeed rough. One or two almost sprained ankles there. And the hidden sprinklers do not help!! Not to mention the sprinklers that are operational at that time of night, giving a short, sharp wakeup shower.

Great fun.

And then I saw the pictures that were posted on the facebook page. You do want to shout "Oh, shut your mouth!!!"

In my defense, I was out of breath!

Johannesburg City 10K Run

 Well then. After the realisation in April of 2015 that I was, in fact, a fat slob, I started running. Well, jogging. Well walking fast and for short intervals. After a bit of a false start I eventually managed to do the running and exercising thing more often during 2016. This culminated in me being in some shape (yes, round is a shape) to run in the JHB 10k City Run last weekend. And my time of 1:02:40 is reasonably, shall we say, not too shabby for an our of shape middle aged man.

This, of course, in preparation for the Two Oceans. You see. Not just blowing smoke about that one...

The 2 Oceans Project – Update 19/04/16

No… I have not forgotten!! I’ve been busy!

Good news is that I passed my last PPL subject and I am now in the home straight for my PPL. Happy dance!!

As for the 2 Oceans Project, I have been training these last two weeks. Last week I did 20,5km and the week before 15,9km. My pace is steadily increasing and I am up from a horrible 8:00/km to a better (but still to be improved) 6:22/km. Still some way to go.

Also signed up for Team Vitality and got my race numbers. Now to find a race or two to compete in.

I have set myself the goal to compete in two 5km races before the end of June. Two 10km races before end October and a half marathon by the end of Jan 2017.

Will keep you all up to date.

The Two Oceans Marathon

Firstly, congratulations to all the brave guys and gals that completed the Two Oceans this past weekend. My hat off to you.

Secondly…

I think I might join you next year.

That gives me a year to prepare. Now, I may be a fool, but I am an old fool. Therefore I will only do the half marathon next year. Still… for somebody that can only do a semi-non-disastrous 5km at this stage, there is some work to be done.

Onward then, James. And don’t spare the horses.

Watch this space….

An ode to the download

I can still remember when the internet started making it’s way into our offices and lives. At that time nobody had e-mails. If you wanted to tell somebody something you had to write a letter, on paper… or use the trusty old phone. Or fax them. And notwithstanding this lack of communication everybody survived. Economies grew. And life was a lot more simple.

Then came the internet.

9500 bps. That was the first modem I ever had the pleasure of working with. Dial-up was all the rage. It took you half a day to download a file. But who cared?

Slowly but surely the whole thing took off. Faster and faster. More data. Larger files. Tons of e-mails per day. Working holidays.

Silly, really.

“What are you on about?” I hear you ask.

I am currently dabbling in a spot of programming and app development. Call it a passtime. All of a sudden I am in need of an Apple MAC. Now, I’ve had the opportunity to work on a MacBook for a week or two and frankly, I hated it. Most of the software I use is not available for Apple. Bit of a bummer. So I stick to PC’s and indulge myself on the iPad and iPhone.

So how now brown cow?

Hackintosh…. Yes. That was my expression as well.

Seems that OS X can run on the humble Intel and AMD processor. If you look at the iMac Mini, it is based on an Intel processor.

Well well.

If you are interested, Google “Hackintosh”. Interesting stuff.

I am therefore now busy building myself said equipment. Part of the exercise is to download OS x. Which I am currently doing. All 5,9GB of it. Currently on 4GB. And that in just more than 90 minutes. Impressive. (Telkom Uncapped LTE… because I know that’s your next question.)

That took me back to the old 9500 modem and me and a mate of mine downloading the “WarCraft” installation file, which was just over 5MB if memory serves correctly. The exercise took us the best part of a night and then… just before completion… the line died!!! Oh, the good old days. That file would today have downloaded in about 10 seconds.

And we wonder why we feel so overworked and pressurised.

Download speeds.